As Covid-19 cases surge, corporate houses shut headquarters

Sources in the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate said a couple of buildings, which house the group’s headquarters, in the Shantigram township will remain closed till next Monday.

Corporate houses in Gujarat have not only resorted to a work-from-home policy once again, but some have also closed their headquarters, given the increasing Covid-19 cases in the state.

Infrastructure and trading conglomerate Adani Group has decided to close its headquarters on SG highway and asked all employees to work from home. Sources in the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate said a couple of buildings, which house the group’s headquarters, in the Shantigram township will remain closed till next Monday. The newly built headquarters have nearly 5,000 employees.

Sources said many of the employees live in the township. With nearly 100 cases surfacing inside the township, the management decided to shut the offices for a week.

The Indian multinational conglomerate manages diverse businesses, including energy, resources, logistics, agri-commodities, real estate, financial services and aerospace, from its headquarters. The group has an annual revenue of over $13 billion with operations at 70 locations in 50 countries.

Another Ahmedabad-based conglomerate, Torrent Group, has also closed its headquarters and asked all employees to work from their homes. Jayesh Desai, executive director of Torrent Group, said the decision was taken to protect employees from the coronavirus infection.

Desai said, however, that operations at Torrent Group’s plants continue, and technical and other staff working at plants are following the necessary protocol. The `21,500-crore group’s core businesses of gas, pharmaceuticals and power are managed from its headquarters.

Though India’s biggest private sector company, Reliance Industries (RIL), is headquartered in Mumbai, most of its business interests — including one of the biggest crude oil refineries in Asia — are in Gujarat.

RIL has converted two townships adjoining its crude oil refineries at Jamnagar and Vadodara into fortresses. According to its spokesperson, no outsiders are allowed to enter the townships till further notice. “Even those who go out of the township for some work are asked to quarantine for 14 days before they return. Most employees have been asked to work from home, and only those who are require for on-site operations are going to work at the refineries,” he said.

The $550-million Ahmedabad-based Meghmani Group has also shut its headquarters in Prahaladnagar. Ashish Soparkar, managing director of Meghmani Organics, a flagship company of the group, said the management has asked around 200 employees from headquarters to work from home till further notice. Soparkar said operations at Meghmani’s dye and chemical manufacturing plants in Ahmedabad, Dahej and Bharuch haven’t been affected by the second wave of the pandemic. Operations are going smoothly with all the necessary precautions, he said.